E 13U 






\ 




SPEECH 



OF 



Hon. ELIHU ROOT 

SECRETARY OF WAR 



AT 



PEORIA, ILLINOIS 



SEPTEMBER 24, 1902 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

Gibson Bros,, Printers and Bookbinders. 

1902. 



SPEECH 



OF 



Hon. ELIHU ROOT 

SECRETARY OF WAR 



AT 



PEORIA, ILLINOIS 



SEPTEMBER 24, 1902 



WASHINGTON, D. C. I 

Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbindekj 

1902. 






Bv Transfer 
AUG 3 1914 



Feli.ow Citizens : 

Once before, and only once, 1 have visited the city of 
Peoria. It was on that day, in the autumn of 1S99, when the 
stately and beautiful monument to the soldiers of the Civil 
War, which adorns your public square, was unveiled. It was 
a day of festivity and rejoicing. All business and controversy 
and selfish care had been laid aside, and from all the town 
and all the country round the people had gathered to look 
upon the face and listen to the voice of their beloved President, 
William McKinley. As liis sweet and vibrant tones carried 
his words to the very limits of the great throng, every sentence 
was an impulse of patriotism. Every wave of responsive 
sympathy lifted the people up to higher planes of citizenship 
and of manhood. Not merely what he said but what he was, 
the intimate relation of the listener to the man himself, for the 
moment ennobled every heart and forever left it better than it 
was before. His character was so pure, so unselfish, so free 
from uncharitableness and malice ; his sympathies were so 
broad and genuine ; his love of country and of humanity were 
so sincere ; his sensitive regard for the feelings and desire for 
the happiness of others were so considerate ; the native dignity 
and grace which fitted his high oflice were so charming — that 
the interests of political opposition and the rancor of partisan 
prejudice insensibly lost the wish to assail him ; and even 
while he lived antagonism to the party leader merged into 
affection and honor for the man. His wisdom, his tenacity of 
purpose, his quiet and unostentatious strength, the sagacity and 
skill of his sympathetic control and leadership over men, made 
his nobility of character an active force for justice and peace 
and righteousness. Men may find, or think they find, error 
in his judgments. Men may differ as to the wisdom of his 
policies ; but that his judgments were formed in sincerity as 



4 

he saw the right; that his policies were the outcome of strong 
desire for the peace and happiness and honor of his country 
and of his race, and that he worked them out, so long as he 
lived, along the lines of justice and of humanity ; no one who 
knew him as we knew him, will ever doubt. 

His memorv lives. The powerful impress of his noble char- 
acter persists. The lofty purpose with which he undertook the 
responsibilities and the duties which the fortunes of war cast 
upon the American Government is still the guide of action for 
his party and his country. The first words spoken by his succes- 
sor, when taking the oath of office at Buffalo were : " It is my 
purpose to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President 
McKinley for the peace, prosperity and honor of our beloved 
countr}'." I challenge judgment upon the truth and loyalty 
with which Theodore Roosevelt has redeemed his promise. 
The murderer's bullet robbed us of a friend, it did not produce 
a revolution. It changed rulers, it did not change policies. 
The great party which was in power has continued the same, 
and its policies have continued. President Roosevelt has 
followed them not merely because be promised but because he 
approved. If he had not approved he could not have promised, 
for there is no shadow of deceitfulness in him. With loyalty 
and resolution, with the vigor of his intense convictions, and 
with tlie honesty, frankness and courage for which the American 
people love him he has continued the work McKinley began 
and pressed forward the performance of the great duties which 
they both believed the welfare of their country and of man- 
kind imposed upon the Government of the United States. 

The American people is now called upon to consider 
whether it wishes to withdraw its support from the policy of 
McKinley and of Roosevelt and elect a House of Representa- 
tives whicli will oppose and, by a hostile majority, frustrate 
and prevent all further effective action by the President. 

Of course such action as that waiuld result in an ineffective 
Government. A Government half Republican and half 
Democratic can never be a Government of progress or of 
affirmative action. It cannot deal with difficulties or accom- 



plish beneficent results. If the honor and welfare of the coun- 
try demand that things be done, that constiuctivc statesman- 
ship accomplish results, such a divided Government vvould 
fail. That may be no reason why the people should not 
change the majority in the House for sufficient cause, but it is 
a reason why it should not be done lightly, thoughtlessly, and 
for the mere sake of change. Grave disapproval and loss of 
confidence only could justify the people in thus dividing their 
Government against itself. 

What has the Republican Administration of the country 
done, or failed to do, to call down upon it such disapproval and 
loss of confidence.'* 

The principal, indeed almost the sole attack by the rep- 
resentatives of the Democratic party, which occupied the 
greater part of the last session of Congress, was violent 
denunciation of the administration's policy in the Philip- 
pines, and of the execution of that policy. A crowd of 
difficulties to be dealt with by the administration had ac- 
companied the war with Spain. A large army had been 
raised, the national debt had been increased by the borrow- 
ing of $200,000,000, burdensome war taxes had been im- 
posed. In the islands yielded or ceded by Spain, millions of 
men of alien races, dift'ering in language, in laws, in customs, 
in traditions, in jDrejudices, in ways of thinking, most of them 
ignorant, most of them suspicious, many of them unfriendlv, 
were to be pacified and reconciled and governed and taught 
self-government. New experiments in government were to 
be tried. There were no precedents, and precedents were to 
be made. There was no governmental machinei-y, and govern- 
mental machinery was to be constructed. The principles of 
American liberty were to be applied to new and strange con- 
ditions among peoples who hardly knew the alphabet of free- 
dom . 

By the spring of 1902 the Republican Administration had 
dealt with all these diificulties, and as to all but one had 
reached a point where the success of a wise policy and efiec- 
tive administration could not be gainsaid. 



The army of 270,000 men had been disbanded, and the regular 
force had been i-educed to two-thirds of the permanent number 
allowed by law to safeguard the country against future attacks. 
The war taxes had been repealed, and the industry and property 
the country had been relieved of their burden. The process 
of again reducing the national debt had progressed so far that, 
through payment and refunding, after paying all the expense 
of the war and in the Philip[)ines, the annual interest charge 
upon the debt was less by $6,844,431.70 than it was at the 
opening of the war with Spain. 

Plain duty had been done by Porto Rico, and done with 
such judgment and discretion that a new system of taxa- 
tion, suited to her conditions, was studied out in detail, put 
in force, and made productive, taking the place of the cus- 
toms duties, upon which she had relied, without a break 
or embarrassment in the financial affairs of her government. 
American currency had replaced the Spanish pesos, civil 
government had been established upon just and firm founda- 
tions, the laws which protect individual liberty had been 
planted in that unfamiliar soil, the judicial procedure which 
protects the innocent had been substituted for arbitrary 
power, the writ of habeas corpus^ the great writ of personal 
freedom, had supplanted the inconimiinicado. The stoim of 
detraction and abuse which raged around the administration 
in the spring of 1900 had died away and disappeared upon the 
demonstration of the wisdom of the Republican Porto Rican 
policy, and before the spectacle of a prosperous and happy 
people, governed by the harmonious action of their own elected 
legislative assembly and of the officers appointed by the Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

The work of pacification and construction in Cuba had been 
completed. Military government there had faithfully given 
effect to the humane purposes of the American people. With 
sincere kindness our officers had helped the Cuban people to 
take the steps necessary to the establishmentof their own consti- 
tutional government. During the time required for that pro- 
cess they had governed Cuba wisely and justly , had honestly 



collected and expeiulcd for the interest of the people the reve- 
nues, amounting to nearly sixty millions of dollars ; liad executed 
thorough sanitary measures, improving the healtli and lowering 
the death rate. By patient, scientific research, they had ascer- 
tained the causes of yellow fever, and by good administration 
had put an entl to that most dreadful disease which had long 
destroyed the lives and liindered the commercial prosperity 
of the Culians ; they had expeditctl justice and secured pro- 
tection for the rights of the innocent, while they had cleansed 
the prisons and created healthful conditions for the punishment 
of the guilty ; thev had providctl adequate hospitals and 
asylums for the care of the unfortunate ; they had established 
a general system of free, common schools throughout the 
island, in which over two huiulred thousand children were in 
actual attendance ; they had consti ucted great and necessary 
public works; they had trained the Cubans themselves in all 
branches of administration so that the new government, upon 
assuming power, had begun its work with an experienced 
force of Cuban civil service employees competent to execute its 
orders ; they had borne themselves with dignity and self-con- 
trol, so that nearly four years of military occupation had 
passed unmarred by injury or insult to man or woman ; they 
had transferred the government of Cuba to the Cuban people 
amid universal expressions of friendship and good will, and 
had left a record of justice and liberty, of rapid improvement 
in material and moral conditions, and of progress in the art of 
gfovernment which brought honor from all the world to the 
people of the United .States. 

Of all the executive problems following in the train of the 
Spanish war the problem of the Philippines alone remained. 
Success there had not then been demonstrated, and it was still 
possible that the failure there might lead the American peo- 
ple to withdraw power from Republican hands. Accordingly 
the Philippine policy of the Administration was attacked. I 
ask the people of the United States to consider the record 
made by the Democratic party in that attack. 

The policy was simple. Spain, which for more tlian three 



centuries before Dewey's victory had exercised undisputed sov- 
ereignty over the Philippine Islands, ceded the islands with all 
her title and sovereignty there to the United States, by the treaty 
of peace which was signed at Paris on the loth of December, 
1S9S, and was confirmed by the Senate of the United States on 
the 6th of February, 1S99. The cession was one of the terms of 
peace, and was upon a special consideration of $20,000,000 to 
be paid to Spain by the United States. Upon the ratification 
of the treaty and the payment of that money, sovereignty 
over the Philippine Islands vested in the United States, the 
territory of the islands became the territory of the United 
States, the public lands belonging to Spain in the islands 
became the property of the United States ; all the rights and 
all the obligations towards the other nations of the world in 
respect of the Philippine Islands which pertained to sovereignty 
devolved upon the United States. The Supreme Court of the 
United States has declared this without difference of opinion. 
For a long time before the ratification of the treaty the army 
of the United States had been in possession of the city of 
Manila, and on the 4th of February, two days before the rati- 
fication, a body of insurgents, under the Tagalog chieftain 
Aguinaldo, attacked our forces in that city, and they were driven 
back with heavy loss, and with the loss of 260 of our own 
soldiers, killed and wounded. Then the two armies rested, 
facing each other in long lines surrounding the city of Manila. 
Under these circumstances, and with a full knowledge of 
these facts, the treaty under which we acquired the Philippines 
and paid $20,000,000 for them was ratified b}'^ two-thirds 
vote of the Senate. The vote was not a party vote. Some 
Republicans voted against the treaty. Many leading Demo- 
crats of the Senate voted in its favor. Mr. Bryan, the great 
Democratic leader of the day, was urgently in favor of the 
ratification. Subsequently the $20,000,000 to pay for the 
islands was appropriated without a party division by an over- 
whelming vote of both Houses ; and on the 2d of March Con- 
gress again without a party division authorized the increase of 
the regular army from 37,000 to 65,000, and the raising of 



35iOOO volunteers for service in the Philippine Islands, where 
active fiii^hting had been resumed. 7^he policy of the Repub- 
lican Administration has been to maintain the sovereignty thus 
acquired ; to put down the insurrection against that sovereignty 
by the use of the means thus furnished by the people of the 
United States without regard to party ; and then to give to the 
people of the islands all the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty, of just and equal laws, of good and honest administra- 
tion, of education, of individual freedom, of social order, and 
of self-government just so far as thev were competent to govern 
themselves. 

President McKinley declared that policy in liis message of 
that year in these words : 

'• Until Congress shall have made known the formal 
expression of its will I shall use the authority yested in 
me by the Constitution and the statutes to uphold the 
sovereignty of the United States in those distant islands as 
in all other places where our flag rightfully floats. I 
shall put at the disposal of the Army and Navy all the 
means which the liberality of Congress and the people 
have provided to cause this unprovoked and wasteful in- 
surrection to cease. If any orders of mine were required 
to insure the merciful conduct of military and naval opera- 
tions, they would not be lacking ; but every step of the 
progress of our troops has been marked by a humanity 
which has surprised even the misguided insurgents. The 
truest kindness to them will be a swift and eflective defeat 
of tiieir present leader. The hour of victory will be the 
hour of clemency and reconstruction. 

No effort will be spared to build up the waste places 
desolated by war and by long years of misgovernment. 
We shall not wait for the end of strife to begin the benefi- 
cent work. VVe shall continue, as we have begun, to 
open the schools and the churches, to set the courts in 
operation, to foster industry and trade and agriculture, 
and in every way in our power to make these people 
whom Provitlence has brought within our jurisdiction feel 
that it is their liberty and not our power, their welfare and 
not our gain, we are seeking to enhance. Our flag has 
never waved over any community but in blessing. I believe 
the Filipinos will soon recognize the fact that it has not 



lO 

lost its gift of benediction in its world-wide journey to 
their shores." 

The Civil Commission, of which President Schurman was 
the head, after studying the subject on the ground, in the 
Philippines, declared their conclusions in these words: 

"Deplorable as war is, the one in which we are now 
engaged was unavoidable by us. We were attacked by a 
bold, adventurous, and enthusiastic army. No alternative 
was left to us except ignominious retreat. 

It is not to be conceived of that any American would 
have sanctioned the surrender of Manila to the insurgents. 
Our obligations to other nations and to the friendly 
Fili]5inos and to ourselves and our flag demanded that 
force should be met by force. Whatever the future of the 
Philippines may be, there is no course open to us now 
except the prosecution of the war until the insurgents are 
reduced to submission. The Commission is of the opinion 
that there has been no time since the destruction of the 
Spanish squadron by Admiral Dewey when it was 
possible to withdraw our forces from the islands either 
with honor to ourselves or with safety to the inhabitants." 

In those early months of 1S99, when the course of our Gov- 
ernment towards the insurrection had to be determined, there 
was no ditlerence of opinion between the two parties as to the 
duty of the Administration. The Democratic equally with 
the Republican press throughout the country demanded that 
this policy be followed. 

'•In the light of the thrilling news from Manila," said 
tlie Atlanta CoJibtitution of February 6, 1S99. "there 
now remains but one course for the American Government 
to pursue, and that is to conquer the forces of Aguinaldo. 
In our own way and in our own time we can deal with 
tlie question of local government in the Philippines, but 
as long as an armed foe stands in the way the only work 
ahead of us will be to vindicate the authority of the flag." 

The Louisville Coiiricr-Jiniriial of the same day declared : 

" There can be but one result, which will be the prompt 
and complete assertion of our authority over Aguinaldo 
and his Tagalogs as it was asserted over the Spaniards. 



II 

We know how to deal with the misguided and maliciously 
instigated insubordination of the Filipinos." 

The New Orleans Picayziiic said : 

'■• It will now be necessary to crush the insurrection and 
firmly establish the American control before the future 
form of government for the islands can be for a moment 
considered." 

The Nashville Avicrican : 

" We must make them know that our power is supreme, 
otherwise we cannot give to them the blessings freedom 
and individual libert}' have in store. The United States 
cannot and will not yield to Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo must 
and will yield to the United States." 

The New \oxV Journal said : 

" To the unprovoked attack upon our forces at Manila 
while we were extending every effort to reach an amicable 
adjustment with tlie Filipinos, and while our commission 
of inquiry was actually on the way, there can be but one 
answer. Order must be restored in the Philippines. The 
men who have taken our forl^earance for weakness must 
be taught their mistake. American authority must be 
established at once lieyond challenge throughout the archi- 
pelago." 

The Memphis Coinincrcial said : 

"As long as they tight American troops our policy will 
be to fight back and fight to conquer." 

The Denver Daily News: 

" That act has made it impossible for the United ^States 
to leave those islands imtil it has administered justice to 
those responsible for the attack. While it may be deter- 
mined not to hold these islands, and may be disadvanta- 
geous to hold them, still our national dignity and honor 
will not permit our forces to he driven out." 

Here and there an individual voice was raised counseling 
surrender and retreat, but the general voice of the people, 
without distinction of part}', and without regard to selfish 
interest, seconded the action of Congress and the require- 
ments of the Constitution in demanding from the Executive 
the suppression of insurrection and the establishment of peace- 



12 

fill government in the Philippine Islands under the sovereignty 
of the United States. 

That task also has now been accomplished. The sound of 
angry voices declaring that it never could and never would be 
done had hardly died away in our national capital when, on 
the 4th of July last, the last hostile gun was laid down, the 
last insurgent surrendered, the last remnant of military gov- 
ernment was terminated, civil government, with just and equal 
laws maintaining social order aiid protecting propert}' and life 
and liberty, was established over the last province of the 
Philippines outside of the Moro country, the flag under which 
Lawton and Logan fell floated the emblem of acknowledged 
sovereignty over every island and every town, and our President 
celebrated the anniversary of national independence by pro- 
claiming peace and general amnesty. The task has not been 
an easy one. I cannot better describe the work our soldiers 
had to do and the way they did it than by reading the words 
of the general order which signalized the termination of their 
most arduous labors : 

"■ The President thanks the oflicers and enlisted men of 
the army in the Philippines, both regulars and volunteers, 
for the courage and fortitude, the indomitable spirit and 
loyal devotion with which they have put down and ended 
the great insurrection which has raged throughout the 
archipelago against the lawful sovereignty and just au- 
thority of the United States. The task was peculiarly 
diflicult and trying. They were required at first to over- 
come organized resistance of superior numbers, well 
equipped with modern arms of precision, intrenched 
in an unknown country of mountain defiles, jungles, 
and swamps, apparently capable of interminable de- 
fense. When this resistance had been overcome they 
were required to crush out a general system of guerrilla 
warfare conducted among a people speaking unknown 
tongues, from whom it was almost impossible to obtain 
the information necessary for successful pvusuit or to 
guard against surprise and ambush. 

" The enemies by whom they were surrounded were re- 
gardless of all obligations of good faith and of all the limi- 
tations which humanity has imposed upon civilized war- 



13 

fare. Bound themselves by the laws of war, our soldiers 
were called upon to meet every device of unscrupulous 
treachery and to contemplate without reprisal the infliction 
of barbarous cruelties upon their comrades and friendlv 
natives. They were instructed, while punishing armed 
resistance, to conciliate the friendship of the peaceful, 
yet had to do with a population among whom it was 
impossible to distinguish friend from foe, and who in count- 
less instances, used a false appearance of friendship for 
ambush and assassination. They were obliged to deal 
with problems of communication and transportation in a 
country without roads and frequently made impassable 
by torrential rains. They were weakened by tropical 
hea.t and tropical disease. Widely scattered over a great 
archipelago, extending a thousand miles from north to 
south, the gravest responsibilies, involving' the life or 
death of their commands, frequently devolved upon young 
and inexperienced officers beyond the reach of specific 
orders or advice. 

"Under all these adverse circumstances the Army of 
the Philippines has accomplished its task rapidly and 
completely. In more than two thousand combats, great 
and small, within three years, it has exhibited unvarying 
courage and resolution. Utilizing the lessons of the 
Indian wars, it has relentlessly followed the guerrilla 
bands to their fastnesses in mountain and jungle and 
crushed them. It has put an end to the vast system of 
intimidation and secret assassination by which the peace- 
ful natives were prevented from taking a genuine part in 
government under American authority. It has captured or 
forced to surrender substantially all the leaders of the in- 
surrection. It has submitted to no discouragement and 
halted at no obstacle. Its officers have shown high 
qualities of command, and its men have shown devotion 
and discipline. Its splendid virile energ}' has been accom- 
panied by self-control, patience and magnanimity. With 
surprisingly few individual exceptions its course has 
been characterized by humanity and kindness to the pris- 
oner and the non-combatant. With admirable good 
temper, sympathy, and loyalty to American ideals, its 
commanding generals have joined with the civilian agents 
of the Government in healing the wounds of war and 
assuring to the people of the Philippines the blessings of 
peace and prosperity. Individual liberty, protection of 



14 

personal rights, civil order, public instruction, and relig- 
ious freedom have followed its footsteps. It has added 
honor to the flag w^hich it defended, and has justified in- 
creased confidence in the future of the American people, 
whose soldiers do not shrink from labor or death, yet love 
liberty and peace. 

" The President feels that he expresses the sentiments 
of all the loyal people of the United States in doing honor 
to the whole armv which has joined in the performance 
and shares in the credit of these honorable services." 

The problem to be worked out in the Philippines was not 
a military problem alone. At the bottom of our difiiculties 
lay the fact that the Spaniards, to secure the assistance of the 
people against us, and after them the ambitious men who saw 
the opportunity to secure empire for themselves, had filled the 
minds of the ignorant and credulous people with vile slanders 
upon American character, and the most extravagant and gro- 
tesque tales of American tyranny and barbarity. They de- 
scribed us as monsters in human form, who sought to fasten 
upon the miserable Filipinos a tyranny worse than that of 
Spain, and who would respect neither the rights of man nor 
the virtue of woman, nor the innocence of childhood, nor the 
sacredness of religion. To dispel this dreadful belief words 
were of no avail. Assurance and promises were useless, for 
they were not believed. Before a genuine acceptance of our 
sovereignty could come, except by the sullen acquiescence of 
the conquered, it was necessary that we should demonstrate to 
the great mass of the people of the islands that our sovereignty 
meant justice and not oppression, liberty and not slavery, pro- 
tection of law and not the license of arbitrary power. And so 
without waiting until the termination of the war, we estab- 
lished civil government to go hand in hand with our advanc- 
ing armies. 

A new civil commission was created with Judge Taft at its 
head. As armed resistance ceased, island by island, province 
by province, town by town, civil government was substi- 
tuted for Military Government ; the bill of rights extended 
its protection over the people ; the writ of habeas corpus 



15 

became the guaranty of their liberty ; elections were held 
at which tlie people chose the officers of their own towns 
ami provinces; a native constabulary was org'anizetl, and 
proved foithful and effective for the protection of life and prop- 
erty ; the people resumed their customary avocations under the 
protection of law. In this way when the insurrection l)reathed 
its last in the mountains of Batangas the great bod}' of the 
people had already commenced to learn the true and beneficent 
meaning of American sovereignty, and a civil government built 
up by the careful labor of years was xilready in existence, fully 
organized and readv for the final extension of its authority. 
The instructions given by the President to the Philippine Com- 
mission, which constitute both the organic law of the civil 
government and the code of rules and principles to guide its 
conduct, have been adopted bv Congress without change and 
practically without criticism as the future guide of that Gov- 
ernment's action. Tlie system of government created under 
these instructions is continued by Congress unchanged, except 
by the enlargement of its power. I invite comparison between 
the body of laws enacted by the Philippine Commission. 441 
in number, and the statutes of any State and of any country. 
Thev exhibit constructive ability, legislative skill, painstaking 
familiaritv with conditions, and fidelity to constitutional prin- 
ciples. The public revenues have been honestly collected and 
honestly administered for the benefit of the people, under a 
strict and thorough audit. Notwithstanding the insurrection, 
the business of the islands has flourished and has become 
nearly double what it was in the most peaceful years under 
vSpanish rule. I quote from a circular issued by the German 
government last year, for the information of German producers 
and exporters : 

"Although the pacification of the Piiilippinc Archi- 
pelago has not as yet been fully established, the accounts 
of its economic department are so favorable that it can- 
not be too strongly m^ged upon German exporters to give 
particular attention to this group of islands. From July, 
1900, to March, 1901, the exports have increased l)y 34 



i6 

per cent, and the imports by 52 per cent., as compared 
with those of the same period of the preceding year. The 
testimony cannot be withheld that the American admin- 
istration of the affairs of the Philippines has, as far as 
the economic betterment of the country is concerned, 
ah-eady achieved extraordinary success. 

"In 1S94, which was the last year of peaceful condi- 
tion while under Spanish rule, the Philippine imports 
reached $28,500,000 and the exports $33,100,000, Mexi- 
can, in value. Under American rule, in spite of the 
continued insurrection of the natives, the imports increased 
in 1S99 to $40,900,000 and in 1900 to $55,500,000, 
Mexican, and the exports to $38,500,000 and $53,400,000, 
respectivelv. Military supplies are not included in these 
figures. The detailecl statistics show that Spanish trade 
with these islands is rapidly diminishing, but commercial 
relations with the United fStates are gaining." 

A million dollars has been applied to the construction of 
roads, two million dollars to the improvement of the harbor of 
Manila ; a system of free public schools has been established ; 
I So. 000 children are enrolled ; and a thousand teachers brought 
from America and nearly four thousand native teachers are 
instructing them. A normal school has been established in 
Manila. Ten thousand adults are attending night schools to 
learn English. In selecting the employees of the civil govern- 
ment a rigid and comprehensive civil service law has been 
faithfully observed. A majority of the prominent men of the 
insurrection are taking part in the ne.v government. Of the 
seven commissioners who, with the Governor, exercise legis- 
lative power, three are Filipinos. The Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Comt and an Associate Justice, many of the Judges 
of the first instance and many other high officials, are Fili- 
pinos. While we have reduced our American troops in the 
islands from about 70,000 to about 20,000, we have enlisted 
about 5,000 natives, who have proved to be trustworthy and 
efficient, and there is no longer occasion to doubt that either 
as a military force or as a constabulary, the natives of the 
islands themselves can be trusted to take the principal burden 
of maintaining order, and that only a small force of American 



17 

troops will be required. Our position in the Philippines to- 
day is far better than the most sanguine American could rea- 
sonably have expected in those early days of 1S99, when the 
Democratic press and Democratic leaders were joining with 
the Republicans in the declaration that the insurrection must 
be put down. We shall have discouragements and reverses 
in the future as we have in the past. Grave difficulties 
doubtless await us, but the greatest difficulties are past. The 
legislation enacted at the last session of Congress secures 
the good which has been accomplished, and with wise con- 
servatism opens the way to future progress. The taking of a 
census under its provisions has alreadv been ordered, and after 
the census will follow a legislative assembly elected bv the 
Filipinos in which they can test and exercise their capacity 
for government on the broader field as they are alreadv doing 
in their local affairs. We know now that steady and faithful 
adherence to the course which McKinley began and Roosevelt 
is following, will prove beyond question or cavil the truth of 
the declaration that our flag has never waved over any com- 
munity but in blessing, and that it has not lost its gift of bene- 
diction in its world-wide journey to the Philippine shores. 

Before the American people determine whether they will 
withdraw from the administration which has done these things, 
the power to continue its effective action, and hamper it by 
an adverse majority in the House of Representatives. I would 
like to have them understand and consider what part the 
Democratic party has played in this history. 

It concerned the credit and honor of our country that we 
should succeed in the Philippines. If we had failed, we 
should have stood before all the world, and in our own con- 
sciousness as well, convicted of weakness and inefficiencv and 
of lacking the strength and unity of purpose and the capacity 
for resolute and persistent action, without which no nation can 
be great. 

And, my fellow-citizens, there come always in every great 
and difficult undertaking times when failure seems possible ; 
times when discourasrements and difficulties and doubts beset 



i8 

the pathway of endeavor. Then it is that high courage and 
unshaken resolve mark the quality of a nation's greatness, and 
then it is that faint hearts with querulous regrets and carping 
complaints seek always to give up the fight. Such times came 
during the Philippine insurrection. Where was the Demo- 
cratic party then.? Was it helping the nation to succeed, or 
was it helping the Administration to fail ? The very men who 
had cried '^ Down with Aguinaldo," "Hurrah for the flag," 
"The insurrection must be put down ; " the very men who 
had voted to take the cession of the Philippines, who had 
voted the money to pay for the Philippines, who had voted 
for the troops to send to the Philippines, to put down the 
insurrection, seized the moment of discouragement to demand 
that in the face of armed resistance, the war should be de- 
clared a failure, the struggle should be given up, sovereignty 
should be relinquished, and defeated and humiliated America 
should surrender the cause for which the lives of so many of 
her soldiers had been sacrificed. There were some honorable 
exceptions, but most of them retired to the background and 
left the leadership of the party to the men who were willing 
to voice this policy which for all time would have marked us 
as a nation rash in counsel and feeble in execution. 

The new leaders filled the air with outcries over the cost of 
suppressing the insurrection. 

They wrung the hearts of our people by parading the sad 
statistics which told the story of our dead and wounded. 

They protested that the islands would never pay, and 
pointed with triumph to the custom-house figures, which 
showed that although our trade with the Philippines had in- 
creased, it had not in the midst of insurrection sprung up 
like Jonah's gourd in a single night. 

They asserted that we never could and never would suc- 
ceed. " Thirty thousand, forty thousand, fifty thousand men 
will be required for five years, for twenty-five 3'ears," they 
cried. Five months have not passed and there are but 30,000 
American soldiers there. They tore passion to tatters in their 
insistence upon the construction of the Constitution which 



19 

would include the archipelago within the provisions of the 
Dingley Tariff, and subject that distant tropical country to the 
duties provided to suit the conditions of life and production of 
the United States. With vindictive insolence they denounced 
the Supreme Court for deciding otherwise, and then urged 
that Congress should include the islands within that tariff' law. 
Was it because they sought the welfare of the Filipino that 
they desired to impose upon him the provisions of this statute, 
which they abhor and condemn.? Certainly not. It was be- 
cause those duties were so unsuited to the life of the Philippine 
Islands, that business there could not continue and the people 
could not live under them, and an attempt to govern the 
islands under them would have been an inevitable failure. 

They gave courage and hope to the insurgent leaders by con- 
stantly insisting that terms should be made, tliat independence 
should be conceded, that the insurgents should be induced to 
lay down their arms by promises, and they thus continually sup- 
plied incentive to further resistance by the apparent possibility 
of substantial success. 

They slandered our title, and denied that we acquired 
sovereignty at all by the cession from Spain. 

They asserted that we had no right to succeed because 
we had promised Aguinaldo independence, and the asser- 
tion of sovereignty was an act of perfidy — the perfidy of 
George Dewey and Wesley Merritt and William McKinley ! 
They asserted this against the official reports and the sworn 
testimony of Dewey, who alone could have made the prom- 
ise ; against the evidence of the original written document 
signed by Aguinaldo and his associates, which shows that 
he came to Manila not relying upon any promise ; but with 
the expressed intention to obtain arms from the Americans in 
order to use them first against the Spaniards and tlien against 
the Americans themselves. They asserted it against the writ- 
ten statement of Mabini, the Prime Minister of the insurrec- 
tion, declaring that there was no agreement whatever, and 
against the admission of Aguinaldo that there was none. 

They charged that the outbreak of hostilities on the fourth 



20 

of February was an unprovoked and wicked attack by the 
American soldiers upon the peaceful Filipinos who had no 
thought of war ; and this in the face of the written evidence, 
over the signature of Aguinaldo himself, by proclamation, by 
letter, bv telegram, by military order, that the Philippine 
forces had been for months preparing and intending to bring 
on that very conflict. They charged that the officers of our 
army were guilty of the atrocious wickedness of making that 
attack to aflect the ratification of the treaty by the Senate, and 
they charged that the dispatches which Dewey and Otis sent 
were sent in anticipation, before the fight occurred. 

They asserted that we had no right to succeed because we 
found a people struggling for liberty and became their ally. 
There is no basis for the assertion. When Dewey destro^-ed 
the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, the people of the Philippines 
were not struggling at all. There was no insurrection there. 
There had been an insurrection, and it had been terminated 
four months before by the payment of money to the leaders, the 
chief of whom was Aguinaldo, and their expatriation to Hong- 
kong. The agreement by which that insurrection was termi- 
nated said nothing either about independence or about reforms. 
It was a simple agreement to stop fighting for money ; and it 
declared that Aguinaldo and his associates desired to preserve 
their Spanish citizenship. 

Here is a copy of Aguinaldo's proclamation when he left 
his country : 

" BiACNABATO, December 25, 1S97. 

" I lay down my arms because furtlier warfare will 
bring not happiness but trouble and disaster, which is not 
the end the insurrection seeks. I quit the field since my 
ambitions for my people are one with the lofty desires of 
the noble Governor General, Senor Don Fernando Primo 
de Rivera, Marquis de Estrella, who inspired by his love 
for our dear country inaugurated an era of peace from 
that time he took up the reins of government of this Span- 
ish territory. I lay down arms in accordance with the 
patriotic advice of the intermediary, the maginoo, Pedro 
A. Paterno, lover of the well-being of oiu" mutual native 



21 

land. T go ot my own will. I go for in spite of the per- 
sonal immunity which is given me by the laws, by prom- 
ises and by Spanish honor, yet the violent passion of 
hatred or some other political excitement might raise its 
suicidal hand and make anew victims, thereby creating 
disturbances and interfering with the progress of our de- 
velopment. 

Viva Espana, Viva Filipinas." 

He declares that he leaves because his amliitions for his peo- 
ple are one with the desires of the Spanish Governor General. 
There was surely no independence in those desires. And he 
conclutles ''•Viva Espana, Viva Filipinas!" That was the 
condition of affairs at the time when the outbreak of war be- 
tween Spain and the United States suggested to the little band 
of expatriated adventurers in Hongkong that they might 
profit by our destruction of the Spanish power with which 
they were in such appreciative accord. When Aguinaldo first 
went ashore from Dewey's ship on the 19th of Ma}', 1S9S, to 
start the insurrection with the arms that Dewev furnished to 
him, he found no insurrection and no support, and returned 
discouraged to the ship and asked to be sent to Japan because 
he could do nothing. Dewey told him to try again and sent 
him back. And now his friends here say there was an im- 
plied obligation to give him the countr}^ for Dewey found the 
people struggling for their liberty. After reading the procla- 
mation announcing the accord of Aguinaldo with the lofty 
desires of the Spanish Governor General, this letter which he 
lias just written to the President is most interesting : 

"■ The Honorable Theodoke Roosevelt, 

President of the United States of America. 

••' Sir : I have the honor to present to you an expres- 
sion of mv gratitude for the amnesty which opens the 
prison doors and lifts the ban of banishment from many 
Filipinos who have honorably struggled for their ideal. 

"■ I trust that such a generous and noble course on the 
part of the Nation which you represent will be beneficial 
in uniting, in the futui"e, the friendly relations between 
Americans and Filipinos, and I am assured that with the 



22 

disinterested and just protection of the wortiiy descend- 
ants of the great George Washington, the aspirations of 
my country will be satisfied, and which, I am sure, will 
fully demonstrate its gratitude for the benefits which are 
being done for us. 

" Very respectfully, 

" EMILIO AGUINALDO y FAMY. 

" Manila, Cali.e Concordia, July 5, 1902." 

He is a philosopher that Aguinaldo ! 

The Democrats in Congress declared that we ought not to 
succeed because the Filipinos were competent to govern them- 
selves. We know that in fact their pretense of constitutional 
government disappeared at the first symptom of dissent from 
Aguinaldo's will, and he became an absolute military dictator. 
VVe know this power was made secure by the assassination of 
his rival, Luna, who, whether by Aguinaldo's order or not, 
was slain upon Aguinaldo's threshhold by Aguinaldo's guards. 

I read the description of that government from the report of 
the Commission of which President Schurman was the head : 

" Throughout the archipelago at large there was trouble 
only at those points to which armed Tagalos had been sent 
in considerable numbers. In general, such machinery of 
*■ government ' as existed servetl only for plundering the 
people under the pretext of levying ' war contributions,' 
and while many of the insurgent officials were rapidly ac- 
cumulating wealth. The administration of justice was 
paralyzed, and crime of all sorts was rampant. Might 
was the one law. Never in the worst days of Spanish 
misrule had the people been so over-taxed or so badly 
governed. In many provinces there was absolute anarchy, 
and from all cities came petitions for protection and help 
which we were unable to give." 

Among the captured telegrams is one from Noirel and 
Cailles which further illustrates the character of the govern- 
ment to which we would have left the millions of humble and 
peaceful people of the Philippines. It is dated on the 13th of 



23 

January, 1S99, just twenty-two days before the outbreak of 
hostilities, and it tlirows lig'ht also upon the Democratic asser- 
tion that we were the aesfressors in that conflict. 



■o)-i" 



''To the President of the Republican Government, Ma- 
lolos : 
" We desire to know the result of ultimatum which you 
mentioned in your telegram, and we also desire to know 
what reward our government is preparing for the forces 
who will first be able to enter Manila." 

And here is the answer which we have in Aguinaldo's own 
handwriting : 

"As to the contents of your telegram, those who prove 
themselves heroes will have as I'ewards large sums of 
money, lands, extraordinary promotions, crosses of Biac- 
nabato. Marquis of Malate, Ermita, and Count of Manila, 
etc., besides the congratulations of our idolizing country 
on account of their patriotism, and more if they capture 
the regiments with their generals, and if possible the chief 
of them all who represents our future enemies in Manila." 

Where were the people to be when the Marquis of Malate, 
the Marquis of Ermita and the Count of Manila were estab- 
lished over them witli their large sums of money and grants 
of land? What was Aguinaldo's title to be .'' What was to 
become of the sham constitution under which he was then 
masquerading and which forbade the granting of titles of 
nobility? No, acceptance of sovereignty over the Philip- 
pines carried with it acceptance of the duty of protection ; 
and we should have been false to that duty if we had left these 
people under the cruel and despotic rule of this dictator with 
his generals and his Marquises and his Counts. 

Our Democratic friends brush aside with contempt all Ameri- 
can testimony. The words of Schurman and Taft, and Otis 
and Wright, and Chaffee are as naught to them, but I will cite 
to them a greater than Aguinaldo. The greatest genius and 
most revered patriot of the Philippines was Jose Rizal. 
Shortly before he was done to death by Spain he sent a mes- 



24 

sage to his countrymen. It must have been his hist message ; 
and in it he condemned the insurrection of Aguinaldo, which 
terminated just before our Navy appeared upon the scene, and 
pointed out the path his people should follow to liberty and en- 
lightenment. This is the message : 

" My Fellow Countrymen : 

" On my return from Spain I learned that my name 
was being used as a war cry by men in arms. This news 
shocked me beyond measure, but believing it was all over 
I remained silent as the harm was done and the deed could 
not be recalled. Now I hear rumors that the disturbances 
continue and lest anyone should be taking advantage of 
, my name in good or bad faith, I write now to correct that 
abuse and to undeceive those reckless men in order that 
they may know the truth. When I found out what they 
were attempting to do, I opposed it on principle and at- 
tacked it and showed the utter impossibility of its success. 

"I was convinced that the idea was in the greatest de- 
gree absurd and what was worse would be fatal. When, 
later, in spite of my advice, the movement was begun, I 
offered of my own accord, not only my services, but my 
life and even my good name to be used in any way the}^ 
might believe effective in stifling the rebellion. I thought 
of the disaster which would follow the success of the rev- 
olution, and I deemed myself fortunate if by any sacrifice 
I could l^lock the progress of such a useless calamity. 
This can be proven. 

"My countrymen, I have given proof that 1 was one 
who sought ' liberties' for our country and I still seek 
them. But as a first step I insisted upon the development 
of the people in order that, by means of education and of 
labor, they might acquire the proper individuality and force 
which would make them worthy of them. In my writings 
I have commended to you study and civic virtue without 
which our redemption does not exist. I have also written, 
and my words have been repeated, that reforms to be 
effective must come from above. These which come from 
below will be discountenanced, will be irregular and un- 
stable. Permeated by these ideas, I cannot do less than 
condemn, and I do condemn this absurd and savage in- 
surrection planned behind my back, which dishonors us 
before the Filipinos and discredits us with those who 



25 

otherwise would argue in our behalf. I abominate its 
cruelties and I disavow any kind of connection with it, 
regretting with all the sorrow of my soul that these reck- 
less men have allowed themselves to be deceived. Let 
them return then, to their homes, and may God pardon 
those who have acted in bad faith. 

" Jose Rizal. 
" Fort Santiago, December i6, iSg6." 

That messsage is the platform of the American Government 
in the Philippines. What was true of the people rebelling 
against Spain is doubly true of the same people rebelling 
against the United States. That judgment of the man whose 
birthday the Philippine people celebrate, and whom they 
worship as a saint, measures the duty of American sov- 
ereignty which the American people will surely perform. 

The Democrats declared that we had no right to succeed 
because our assertion of sovereignty was a violation of the 
Declaration of Independence, which declares that governments 
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. 
That maxim, though general in its terms, was enunciated with 
reference to a highly civilized, self-governing people. Its un- 
qualified application to barbarous and semi-civilized people is 
contrary to the whole course of civilization. Its unqualified 
application without regard to the rule and progress of hu- 
manity and ordered liberty among men is contrary to the 
whole course of American history. Without tlie consent of 
the hundreds of thousands of Indians whom our fathers found 
in possession of this land we have assumed and exercised sov- 
ereignty over them. Without the consent of the people of 
Louisiana, Jefterson and the signers of the Declaration and 
framers of the Constitution purchased and exercised sovereignty 
over them. Without the consent of the people of the South 
the Government of the United States, with appalling sacrifice 
of life and treasure, enforced Its sovereignty over them. 

Whose consent were we to ask in the Philippines, and how 
was it to be expressed.'' Were we to accept the results of the 



26 

misrepresentation and calumny which had painted us to the 
ignorant and credulous Filipinos as monsters of cruelty, and 
yield oui" sovereignty because they did not know what it meant 
to them ? 

Among the captured insurgent documents we find original 
telegraphic dispatches, most of them bearing memoranda or 
endorsements in Aguinaldo's handwriting, which show that 
the people of Northern Luzon did not consent to iVguinaldo's 
government, and that it was imposed upon them by foice of 
arms. 

I read extracts from some of the dispatches : From General Pio 
del Pilar, San Pedro Mascati. to Aguinaldo, December 4, 1S98. 
" Urgent. Reliable reports from Pangasinan state there is 
party con)posed of 4,000 individuals opposed to our govern- 
ment. Treason on the part of our troops and civilians." 

From the Director of Diplomacy, Manila, to Aguinaldo, 
December 27, 1S9S, 5 A. M. : " Most urgent. The discon- 
tent in the provinces of Pangasinan, Tarlac and Yloco(Ilocos) 
is increasing. The tov>'n of Bangbang rose in revolt the 25th 
and 26th of this month, and killed all of the civil officials. It 
is impossible to describe the abuses committed by the military 
and civil authority of said province." 

From the Secretary of Interior, Malolos, to Aguinaldo, De- 
cember 28, 189S: "According to my information the excite- 
ment in Tarlac increases. I do not think that the people of 
the province would have committed such barbarities by them- 
selves. For this reason the silence of General Alacabulos is 
suspicious. To speak frankly, it encourages the rebels. 
Some 700 of them with 150 rifles entered Panique, seized the 
arms of the police, the town funds, and attacked the houses of 
the people." 

From the Director of Diplomacy, Manila, to Aguinaldo, De- 
cember 29, 189S: " The question of Tarlac and Pangasinan 
is a serious one. Malolos government calls me to restore it 
in said provinces. I await your opinion and order." 

Where under the rule of force to which we aided Aguinaldo 
in Northern Luzon was the consent of the government to be 
ascertained ? 



27 

The great Visayan island of Negroes has never from tlie 
beginning wavered in its cheerful acceptance of our sov- 
ereignty and its rejection of Tagalog rule. 

The difference between that and the other islands of the 
Visayan group is that in the others the Tagalogs arrived first 
and secured control by force of arms, which, with those 
accustomed for centuries to follow blindly the men in author- 
.ity over them, made consent a necessary sequence. 

When the natives began to know us and to learn what our 
sovereignty really meant they did manifest their acceptance of it 
by the thousands, and what happened to them then ? I read from 
reports received in response to a circular letter to our officers 
sent at the instance of Governor Taft, to ascertain what was done 
by the bands of assassins who were supporting the power of 
Aguinaldo to the Filipinos who dared to give the consent 
of the governed to American sovereignty. The reports show 
in the first district of Southern Luzon natives assassinated for 
sympathizing with i\mericans, 14 ; natives assaulted for sympa- 
thizing with Ameiicans, 104. In the second districtof Southern, 
Luzon natives assassinated for sympathizing with Americans, 
17; natives assaulted for sympathizing with Americans, 106. In 
the first district of Northern Luzon natives assassinated. 100 ; 
natives assaulted, 40. In the third district of Northern Luz(jn, 
natives assassinated, 106; natives assaulted, 131. And so on 
throughout the islands, showing before the end of 1900, 350 
natives assassinated and 442 assaulted and mutilated ; 67 muni- 
cipal officers assassinated and 40 assaulted and mutilated for 
daring to give the consent of the governed to American sov- 
ereignty. Many of them were put to death with irightful bar- 
barity. Some of them were buried alive ; some hacked to 
pieces; some burned. While there were hundreds slain that 
we knew, there were thousands slain that we did not know. 
Where there were thousands put to death, how many were 
deterred by fear of death.'' The reign of terror established 
throughout the islands to prevent by secret and wholesale as- 
sassination, the consent of the governed to American rule 
makes the Mafia seem harmless and beneficent. Are we to 



28 

suri'ender our sovereignty because the consent was withheld 
b)' these means? 

Not content with denying our right to succeed, the Demo- 
crats of Congress came to the aid of the men who were prevent- 
ing Philippine acceptance of American authority by misrepre- 
sentation and slander, and furnished them with fresh material 
and new authority for their aspersions upon the character and 
purposes of the American people. 

" Our dealings with the American Indians," said the 
junior Senator from Tennessee in the Senate on the first 
of May, " have been fitly characterized as a century of 
dishonor ; our treaties with them have been shamefully 
violated ; we have delivered them over to the tender 
mercies of thieving Indian agents ; we have inflamed them 
with injustice and mean whiskey; and when in sheer 
desperation they have risen in revolt we have made them 
' good Indians' with powder and ball." 

****** 

"Alaska was ceded to us by despotic Russia, and came 
under the benign rule of this great Republic. For thirty- 
iive years our continuous misgovernment of that country 
has been a shame and disgrace to the nation. 

****** 

"When the gloss is worn ofl', when the syndicated 
boomers have appropriated the cream of the spoils, when 
the Government sinks into the dull routine of administra- 
tion, it will be in the Philippines precisely as it has been 
in Alaska. We know what kind of men as a rule will be 
sent to serve in the Philippine Islands. Needy and 
desperate adventurers, broken-down politicians looking 
for a job, the sons, nephews, and cousins of American 
politicians, the Rathbones and Neelys ; men who have 
qualified themselves for service abroad by the dirty and 
villainous work they have done at home. These are the 
men who as a rule will find service in the Philippine 
Islands as they did in Cuba, as my friend from Mississippi 

suggests. 

* * * * * * 

" The entire archipelago is swarming with needy and 
desperate adventurers seeking to reap their inhuman har- 
vests from the calamities of the people. American Con- 



29 

gressmen and American officials have been forming 
syndicates and prowling over that country seeking to make 
off with something that could be turned into a dollar. 
The whole pack of lean and famished carpet-baggers that 
once feasted upon the South seem to be howling upon the 
scent of another victim." 

" I infer,'' said the Senator from Utah, '• that this is the 
inauguration of a scheme of loot and plunder and of 
exploitation — another plowing of a ruined Carthage. 
You have garnered the harvest of death, and now propose 
to rake the stubblefield of a slaughtered people. 

****** 

" Mr. President, we have accomplished nothing for the 
benefit of the islands there. The condition there is so 
intolerable that language is inadequate to describe it, and 
what has taken place, if you continue the same policy, is 
likely to be augmented, and midtiplied in its distress and 
disaster in the future." 

Congressman Selby, of Illinois, said : 

'••This 'new policy' business has given birth to the 
biggest crop of liars at Washington and Luzon known 
outside the realms of hades. It has turned out that no 
Republican can visit Manila and return to Washington 
a truthful man. Even the Commission headed by Gov- 
ernor Taft is laigely under suspicion of prevarication, if 
not of fraud, wdiile Generals Otis and Chaffee have always 
been under suspicion. Is it possible that large salaries 
and the hope of great perquisites influence these gentlemen 
and their retainers in distorting the situation at Luzon.? 
Who knows, for the almighty dollar is a great magnet in 
all colonial schemes, and its cobra head isvisible in all the 
Philippines." 

I do not wonder that with such declarations as these in the 
Congress of the United States the Filipinos distrust our assur- 
ances and wait for pioof that our rule will really mean liberty 
and prosperity. If .Senators of the United States have no faith 
in the justice or intcgrit}' or virtue of the American people, 
how can we expect the people of the Philippines to have 
faith. 



30 

The most violent of all attacks was made upon the Army, 
which belongs to no party and is but the instrument of a policy 
in which it has no part. It happened that in the long course 
of guerrilla warfare against savage and treacherous foes who 
observed none of the rules of civilized warfare there were in- 
stances of cruel and inhuman treatment of the natives by our 
men. The " water-cure," so called, was administered to 
extort information. These acts were not justified, and they 
could not be justified, but spread over years of conflict, over 
a vast extent of territory, over tiiousands of engagements and 
skirmishes and expeditions, in which, first and last, i30,oooof 
our troops were engaged, they were few and far between — 
exceptions in a uniform course of self-restraint, humanity, and 
kindness. Rumor magnified them many fold. Each new 
witness to the same case seemed to be producing a new case ; 
published in thousands of newspapers da}' after day and week 
after week, they seemed to be multiplied. Many of the stories 
told were false, many were grossly exaggerated. All were 
published without the background of provocation, often dread- 
ful provocation, of exigency often desperate exigency, which 
existed to palliate, though they could not justify the acts. All 
of these stories, false as well as true, were paraded in Congress 
and discussed, and the officers and men charged were de- 
nounced, the innocent as well as the guilty, without an oppor- 
tunity for hearing while they were away on the other side of 
the world fighting the battles of their country. 

The whole Army and its generals were involved in common 
denunciation. The gallant and fearless Funston was stigma- 
tized by the Senator from Tennessee as a '* blatherskite briga- 
dier." " I do not know who General Wheatou is, particu- 
larly," said the vSenator from Idaho, "but I imagine he was a 
charity boy who was appointed to West Point b}' some Rep- 
resentative or Senator and was educated by the Government." 

This was of Loyd Wheaton, who enlisted from this very 
town as a private in the Sth Ohio Volunteers on the 20th of 
April, iS6i,the day after Lincoln's first call, who won his 
way up through every grade in that regiment until he was 



31 

lionorabl}^ discharged as its lieutenant-colonel at the close of 
the civil war ; who was wounded at Shiloh ; was brevetted for 
faithful and meritorious services in the Mobile campaign ; was 
brevetted again for gallantry at the vSiege of Vicksburg ; was 
brevetted again and received a medal of honor from Congress 
for most distinguished gallantry at Fort Blakely, Alabama ; 
received his appointment in the regular army for those deede- 
and passed through every grade until after more than forty 
years of exceptional and conspicuous service, he was about 
retiring as major-general, full of years and of honor. 

When the worst charge of all, subsequently shown to be 
utterly false, was under discussion in the Senate, the Senator 
from Tennessee declared : 

"Of course the soldier, whatever he may have said, will 
promptly repudiate it as every soldier in the Philippine 
Islands has been required and compelled to do." 

Said the Senator from Utah : 

"• Did Chatlee alone, unaided, in coldness, and in bru- 
tality and in savage and unrelenting disregard of every hu- 
man sentiment or possibility of human sutiering, conceive 
this iniquitous scheme? Whence, from what diabolical 
source was it derived.? The American people ought to 
know. Is there any penalty beneath the sun adequate to 
be meted out to the merciless wretch who has thus brought 
such dishonor upon the American name and the American 
people.'' 

****** 

" Mr. President, I do not believe that Bell himself ever 
conceived this iniquity ; this outline of policy. Perhaps 
it may have been Chaffee, who received his education in 
savagerv and in cruelty and in barbarity over in China, 
where we are informed the allied forces took little children 
and brained them upon posts, threw them into rivers, and 
slaughtered and persecuted without mercy and without 
limit helpless women. After he had received that train- 
ing, he superseded the more humane officer. General Mac- 
Arthur. Then it was that this diabolical programme 
seems to have been adopted and carried out in all its hide- 
ousness and rigfor." 



32 

This was of Atlna R. Chafl'ee. As a boy of nineteen, on 
the 23(1 of July, iS6i, he enlisted as a private in the 6th Cav- 
alry. He served through all the Civil War ; was brevetted for 
gallantry at Gettysburg ; again for gallantry at Dinwiddie 
Court-house ; twice brevetted for gallant service in engage- 
ments with the Indians ; wounded in the Gettysburg campaign ; 
wounded again at the battle of Brandy Station ; highly com- 
mended for his seivices as general officer at El Caney and 
Santiago; chief of staf?' in Cuba; commander of the American 
troops in China ; commanding general in the Philippines ; 
second ranking major-general of the United States Army. It 
was he who, when officers of other nations hesitated to make the 
march to Pekin, when other generals wished to wait for re- 
enforcements that would have come too late ; it was he who 
declared that whatever they might do, he proposed to march at 
once, and he did march, and the}' all marched with him, and 
the legations were saved. Great credit came to the American 
Army, because in that march and after Pekin was captured, 
American soldiers under Chaffee did not loot and were not 
cruel, but protected the property and the lives of the Chinese. 

The quarter of Pekin over which the American flag floated 
was crowded by the poor people when other parts were de- 
serted, because under that flag they found protection and kind- 
ness, and upon General Chaflee's departure he was accom- 
panied by many most touching and gratifying expressions of 
gratitude and affection from the people who had received the 
benefits of his humanity. I did not think an American could 
be found who was not proud of that record. 

Against these contemptuous and injurious aspersions upon 
the soldiers of the United States I will call four witnesses: 

The first is William McKinley : 

" If anv orders of mine were required to insure the mer- 
ciful conduct of military and naval operations, they would 
not be lacking, but every step in the progress of our troops 
has been marked by a humanity which has surprised even 
the misguided insurgents." 



33 

The second is President Schurman, and joining with him 
Admiral George Dewey and the other members of the first 
Philippine Commission : 

" To those who derive satisfaction from seizing on iso- 
lated occurrences — regrettable, indeed, but incident to 
every war — and making them the basis of sweeping accusa- 
tions, this Commission has nothing to say. Still less do 
we feel called upon to answer idle tales without founda- 
tion in fact. But for the satisfaction of those who have 
found it difficult to understand whv the transporting of 
American citizens across the Pacific Ocean should change 
their nature, we are glad to express the belief that a war 
was never more humanel}' conducted. Insurgents wounded 
were repeatedly succored on the field by our men at the 
risk of their lives. Those who had a chance for life were 
taken to Manila and tenderly cared for in our hospitals. 
If churches were occupied, it was only as a military neces- 
sity, and frequently after their use as forts by the insurgents 
had made it necessary to train our artillery upon tliem. 
Prisoners were taken whenever opportunity oftered, often 
only to be set at liberty after being disarmed and fed. 
Up to the time of oiu" departure, although numerous spies 
had been captured, not a single Filipino had been executed. 
Such wrongs as were actually committed against the 
natives were likely to be brought to our attention, and in 
every case that we investigate*.! we found a willingness 
on the part of those in authority to administer prompt 
justice." 

The third is Governor William H. Taft, of Ohio, who said 
in his testimony under oath before the Philippine Committee 
of the Senate : 

" I desire to say that it is my deliberate judgment that 
there never was a war conducted, whether against inferior 
races or others, in which there was more compassion and 
more restraint and more generosity, assuming that there 
was war at all, than there have been in the Philippine 
Islands." 

The fourth is Vice-Governor Luke E. Wright, of Tennes- 
see : 



34 

'' General Chaffee, as a matter of course, had no i^atience 
with any acts of oppression or cruelty, and whenever 
his attention has been called to them has at once taken 
proper steps. The howl against the army has been made 
mainlv for political purposes and the cruelties practiced 
have been largely exaggerated. Ot course, numerous 
instances of this character have occurred. There never 
was and never will be a war of which the same may not 
be said ; but taken as a whole, and when the character of 
the warfare here is considered, I think the officers and 
men of the American army have been forliearing and 
humane in their dealings with the natives, and the attempt 
to create a contrary impression is not only unjust to them, 
but it seems to me impatriotic as well." 

No one of these positions, these arguments, these efforts, these 
attacks, by the Democratic leaders during the critical and try- 
ing time of our Philippine undertaking stands by itself. Men 
may differ upon this point and upon that point, upon this ques- 
tion and upon that question, and different environment and 
disposition will produce different views ; but when we con- 
sider the whole course of these Democratic leaders ; when we 
find them attacking the administration upon the ground of 
doing the very thing they themselves had authorized ; when 
we find them denying our right of sovereignty, denying the 
justice of our cause, assuming the truth of the insurgent's state- 
ments upon every question, rejecting the truth of American 
statements upon every question, elevating and lauding Filipino 
insurgent character and insurgent competency, and ascribing 
the most disgraceful motives and the most outrageous conduct 
to the representatives of their own government, both civil and 
military ; holding out to the insurgents the hope of success 
through further resistance, and painting for them in the black- 
est colors the dreadful consequences of failure, denying and 
impugning before all the world from their high places the good 
faith of the American Government, the integrity of the Ameri- 
can people, and the beneficence of American rule ; arraying 
argument and statistics, never to encourage, but always to dis- 
hearten the American people ; insisting always upon the con- 



35 

struction of powers :intl methods of procedure whicli would 
mrdve success difficult or impossible ; accepting and adopting 
with alacrity every aspersion upon American honor, and re- 
jecting contemptuously every evidence of American efficiency 
and noble purpose ; I think we must say that the Democratic 
party which has allowed these things to be done in its name 
has failed in one more opportunity to secure the respect and 
confidence of the American people. I will not say that these 
men wished their country to fail, but I will say that they wished 
the Republican administration to fail, and that blinded l)y par- 
tisan feeling and desire for power they forgot that the failure of 
the administration in the Philippines would be the failure of 
their country. 

Throughoutall this storm of detraction and abuse the Repub- 
lican majorities of the Senate and tlie House laboretl unceas- 
ingly to frame and perfect legislation under which the peo])le 
of the Philippine Islands might have peace and order antl in- 
dividual freedom and prosperity. They studied the needs of 
the islands, the character of the people, the existing laws and 
system of government, and they produced and passed, against 
Democratic opposition, a Philippine Government Bill which 
exhibits a high degree of wise statesmanship and opens to the 
Philippine people the pathway to that enlightenment and 
capacity for self-government for which Rizal longed, and to 
the blessings which the noble and gentle McKinley believed 
would descend upon thein under the benediction of our Hag. 
I think they and not the others were the ti ue friends of the Phil- 
ippine people. I think they and not the others used well and 
wisely the powers vested in them as representatives of the 
people in the Congress of the United States ; and I submit to 
you, my countrymen, that they and not the otheis are entitled 
to the expression of your confidence in the coming election. 



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